Peak viewing of this year’s fiery showers will be August 12 -13. Thanks to Windsor’s dark skies and the timing of the dim new moon, they’re going to be spectacular (up to 100 shooting stars an hour)! Don't miss it! Beginning as early as 10:30 pm, they’ll grow more intense after midnight and into the wee, pre-dawn hours. The last time the Perseid Meteor Showers peaked at the same time as the new moon was in 2007. There’s no need for telescopes or binoculars. Your naked eye is best. All you need is a dark place away from ambient light. Then, look up! Keep your eyes on whatever part of the sky is darkest.

The meteor shower is composed of particles released from Comet 109/Swift-Tuttle during its many trips to the inner solar system. As the comet flies through space it sheds bits of material, creating an orbit with a ring of dusty debris. Each August the Earth's orbit passes through a section of this ring and stray bits of comet dust, most the size of a grain of sand, slam into our atmosphere at 37 miles per second, heating up the air around it enough to make streaks of light shoot across the sky.